NPR Story

2:00 pm

Fri August 26, 2011

Hurricane Irene has spent the day churning toward the United States. While the eye of the storm is far offshore, rain bands from the tropical system are already lashing the Carolinas. NPR's Greg Allen speaks with Melissa Block with the latest from Virginia.

NPR Story

2:00 pm

Fri August 26, 2011

Call it spin, score settling or setting the record straight: Former Vice President Dick Cheney's new memoir of his extraordinary political career is out next week. Robert Siegel talks with Charlie Savage of the New York Times, who got an early copy of the book, entitled "In My Time."

NPR Story

2:00 pm

Fri August 26, 2011

The difficulty Libyan rebels are having moving their leaders to Tripoli from their temporary capital in Benghazi pales in comparison to the daunting task they face trying to set up a new, post-Gadhafi government. Continued fighting in Tripoli and elsewhere in Libya are hampering efforts to set up an interim government in the next two weeks as planned. There's in-fighting between key leaders whose unity is cracking now that Moammar Gadhafi is gone. Libyans also have to build from scratch many institutions that are key to creating any meaningful democracy.

13.7: Cosmos And Culture

7:25 am

Fri August 26, 2011

Yes, it was Albert Einstein who unified space and time together into a single, coherent whole. As a physicist I can say that was a pretty impressive feat, but as parent — slogging across interstate whatever on the last weekend of the summer — I have to ask: What's the big deal?

Anyone stuck in vacation traffic with kids in tow can tell you that Space and Time have always been unified but not in the wiggly, abstract sense my buddy Al Einstein was talking about.

Tiny Desk Concerts

8:00 am

Thu August 25, 2011

Irish singer-songwriter James Vincent McMorrow has one of the most arresting voices of any young singer you're likely to hear this year: He's got the heartbreaking falsetto of a Justin Vernon (Bon Iver) and the raspy soul of a Ray LaMontagne, in a way that sounds both fragile and grand.

You Must Read This

6:00 am

Mon July 18, 2011

In 1995, when I was a sophomore in high school, an older, popular boy came out of the closet. He was taunted daily until he dropped out. I never saw him again.

Months later, a decidedly unpopular, more flamboyant boy was beaten in the schoolyard. I remember escorting him to the nurse's office. I remember the look of disgust on the nurse's face; I don't know whether this disgust was directed at the act of savagery, or at the bleeding boy himself, and his arm around my shoulder. I also remember thinking that soon it would be my turn, and sure enough it was.